Kiev interview calendar question

[TastyCake 232]

11 minutes ago, Shiran said:

You do not need to wait for any e-mail. Unlike many other countries ALL the information in that e-mail already readily available at https://ua.usembassy.gov/visas/immigrant-visas/fiancee-visa/

And yes, they do send you a copy of approved 129F which I found to be rather neat. 

Sounds good.  I will be on the lookout for the email but won't wait on it before proceeding.

 

As mentioned previously, my fiancee will pay the fee at Raiffeisen tomorrow (Saturday).  The expiration date on the application she printed off yesterday is 6/2 (Sunday).  I saved a new form just now with an expiration date of 6/3 (Monday).  I'll send it to her tonight.  I think we're good with either form since Saturday is 6/1.

 

Shiran/romancape:  Do you know how long after you make the payment you can enter the receipt number and make an interview appointment?  The embassy website said something about if the payment is made Monday through Friday you can make the appointment 10 am the following business day.  They said nothing about a Saturday payment.  And since this is all electronic and you have the receipt # and the appropriate account is credited, I would think they have their money right away (it's done in CASH for crying out loud) so why any delay?

[Shiran 1,134]

8 minutes ago, TastyCake said:

Do you know how long after you make the payment you can enter the receipt number and make an interview appointment?  The embassy website said something about if the payment is made Monday through Friday you can make the appointment 10 am the following business day.  They said nothing about a Saturday payment.  And since this is all electronic and you have the receipt # and the appropriate account is credited, I would think they have their money right away (it's done in CASH for crying out loud) so why any delay?

IT is not right away. Took about a day for us though. I am not sure about doing it on a weekend. Delay is bank needing to communicate it to US government, who the heck knows. Having said that, when calling them they had no issues scheduling interview even when payment didn't clear. "Oh it happens all the time, we can schedule"

Edited May 31, 2019 by Shiran

[TastyCake 232]

19 hours ago, Shiran said:

IT is not right away. Took about a day for us though. I am not sure about doing it on a weekend. Delay is bank needing to communicate it to US government, who the heck knows. Having said that, when calling them they had no issues scheduling interview even when payment didn't clear. "Oh it happens all the time, we can schedule"

Thanks I think I'm going to call them first thing Monday morning and get this all straightened out... see if they can get my appointment scheduled.  Unfortunately, the bank was NOT open today (Saturday) as my fiancee had thought.  So she will do it Monday morning when the banks open.

 

When completing my online profile for scheduling an appointment, entering the receipt #, etc. it asks for a 'Case ID'.  I have two... the USCIS case number and the NVC case number.  I should enter the USCIS case number, right?  Is that what you did?

[Shiran 1,134]

3 minutes ago, TastyCake said:

Thanks I think I'm going to call them first thing Monday morning and get this all straightened out... see if they can get my appointment scheduled.  Unfortunately, the bank was NOT open today (Saturday) as my fiancee had thought.  So she will do it Monday morning when the banks open.

 

When completing my online profile for scheduling an appointment, entering the receipt #, etc. it asks for a 'Case ID'.  I have two... the USCIS case number and the NVC case number.  I should enter the USCIS case number, right?  Is that what you did?

I honestly do not remember. I know we used USCIS WAC number when doing DS-160, but I thought we used NVC (KEV) for all dealing with interview scheduling. 

[TastyCake 232]

On 5/31/2019 at 7:37 PM, Shiran said:

IT is not right away. Took about a day for us though. I am not sure about doing it on a weekend. Delay is bank needing to communicate it to US government, who the heck knows. Having said that, when calling them they had no issues scheduling interview even when payment didn't clear. "Oh it happens all the time, we can schedule"

Are you sure about this?  About being able to schedule even when the payment didn't clear?  My fiancee just made the payment this morning.  I have the receipt number.  It theoretically becomes active after 3-5 hours but I called the call center... played dumb (gee I can't remember when she made the payment but the receipt # is...)... and he was adamant he couldn't schedule anything until the payment has cleared.  Is it just a matter of calling and calling and calling until you get someone who is willing to bend the rules?

 

He did confirm the next available appointment is in August and I am absolutely ripping.  He said they update the schedules all the time and maybe slots open up in June and July but I am absolutely beside myself it could be yet another 2.5 months.  This is ridiculous.  Absolutely ridiculous.

[Trapper99 30]

Not happy to hear about these extended times for interviews. Doesn't make any sense cause all past info shows about 2-3 weeks from consulate receive till interview. 

 

We were looking at early Sept wedding under the assumption that is PLENTY of time (at least 1 month of buffer). Looks like that may not be the case.

[TastyCake 232]

Can someone please try to log into the portal and see if they are having access problems?  I am speaking about the portal where you schedule an appointment.  My normal password isn't working and I did a temporary password and that isn't working either.

[A.V 13]

28 minutes ago, TastyCake said:

Can someone please try to log into the portal and see if they are having access problems?  I am speaking about the portal where you schedule an appointment.  My normal password isn't working and I did a temporary password and that isn't working either.

 

They probably blocked you for 24-72 hours for too much activity. They have limit for checking available dates/checking if your payment was processed. I had the same problem. 

[TastyCake 232]

6 minutes ago, A.V said:

 

They probably blocked you for 24-72 hours for too much activity. They have limit for checking available dates/checking if your payment was processed. I had the same problem. 

I called the hotline and that is exactly what they told me.  Wouldn't it be nice if they gave you a warning or some documentation of this ahead of time?  Or you get a message like 'Excessive logins.  Try again tomorrow' or something intuitive like that?

 

I must have created three or four temporary passwords before I called the hotline.  It was driving me crazy.

[TastyCake 232]

25 minutes ago, A.V said:

 

They probably blocked you for 24-72 hours for too much activity. They have limit for checking available dates/checking if your payment was processed. I had the same problem. 

Would you know if your account was 'unfrozen' after 24 hours?  Or closer to 72?

 

Maybe they say 72 hours if it gets frozen on a Friday (because of the weekend)?

[A.V 13]

8 minutes ago, TastyCake said:

Would you know if your account was 'unfrozen' after 24 hours?  Or closer to 72?

 

Maybe they say 72 hours if it gets frozen on a Friday (because of the weekend)?

 

Yes, mine was frozen for approximately 60 hours including weekend, maybe it will be quicker in your case... Guys from call center told me some message was supposed to pop up about "too much activity", but I didn't get any. 

[romancape 6]

My account is also frozen from friday. Already called and email them. They told me  i have to wait up to 72 hours. Thats insane! 

[TastyCake 232]

1 hour ago, romancape said:

My account is also frozen from friday. Already called and email them. They told me  i have to wait up to 72 hours. Thats insane! 

Clearly we are not being provided any guidance that this is even a possibility.  And when we reach the max and we attempt to log in, we're told invalid username/password as if we're entering the wrong thing.  What we should be getting is something telling us we reached the max logins for the day.  Once the next day happens (12:01 am), the count should start over.  Not 72 hours (weekend or no weekend).

 

It would also be useful if we were advised on each successful login when we are 3...2... 1 times away from reaching our daily max.  I have been in IT for 30 years and it would not be a huge effort to build in this intelligence.

 

To have people unwittingly freezing their accounts, especially when all they are trying to do is validate a payment cleared, is not a very good user experience.  Doing this also taxes your phone staff because now they must field calls for appointments, etc. because people can't get into their accounts.

[romancape 6]

4 hours ago, TastyCake said:

Clearly we are not being provided any guidance that this is even a possibility.  And when we reach the max and we attempt to log in, we're told invalid username/password as if we're entering the wrong thing.  What we should be getting is something telling us we reached the max logins for the day.  Once the next day happens (12:01 am), the count should start over.  Not 72 hours (weekend or no weekend).

 

It would also be useful if we were advised on each successful login when we are 3...2... 1 times away from reaching our daily max.  I have been in IT for 30 years and it would not be a huge effort to build in this intelligence.

 

To have people unwittingly freezing their accounts, especially when all they are trying to do is validate a payment cleared, is not a very good user experience.  Doing this also taxes your phone staff because now they must field calls for appointments, etc. because people can't get into their accounts.

Finally they unlocked my account. Scheduled for August 12 .... 

[TastyCake 232]

2 minutes ago, romancape said:

Finally they unlocked my account. Scheduled for August 12 .... 

I apologize if you said this already but did your fiancee pay the fee at Raiffeisen  last Friday?  Or today?